Lu Yang had heard before that the people of the Army possessed a DNA fragment that was forbidden in pre-war society, which could increase the development speed of cloned human beings in their entire life cycle to 8 times that of normal human beings.

These mass-produced cloned slaves could develop from embryos into babies that could be taken out of the cabin in only 1 to 2 hours. After being sent to a crowded nursery, they went through a period of childhood that normally took eight years to complete in one year.

During that year, they would learn their language. It didn’t matter if they couldn’t master it. When the time was up they would be sent to a facility similar to an arena where they would spend their second year as a teenager.

At that stage, their mortality rate was as high as 50%, and some facilities with elite screening could even reach 70%. Those facilities wouldn’t teach them how to fight, they just served as sieves for those who could adapt to the battlefield or beasts that were fierce enough.

Those who came out alive would be sent to the front on their 2nd birthday to become a qualified cannon fodder.

Their theoretical lifespan would only be 10 to 15 years due to their growth rate being 8 times that of normal people.

However, that was not a weakness, because they wouldn’t live that long at all. The Army has never stopped fighting, whether it was fighting with mutants, barbarians, mutant humans, or other survivor strongholds. The average lifespan of cannon fodder on the front line was less than 3 years, and the longest was not more than 5 years.

There was a saying that the method many marauders used to assimilate the slaves were learned from the Army. They locked the captured slaves in dungeons, made them fight for food, destroyed their spirit and reason, turned the surviving lunatics into cannon fodder, and the surviving cannon fodder into their members...

The Army usually wouldn’t do the last part, though.

Those mass-produced clones could only be slaves, and their final fate could only be death in battle.

In order to ensure the combat effectiveness of these cannon fodders, the cannon fodders would wear electric shock collars, and each ten of them would be assigned a junior officer to supervise the battle. The junior officer would be considered a squad leader of the Army.

The group of nearly 2,000 people seemed to be huge, but most of the cannon fodders couldn’t actually form combat effectiveness. In contrast, Lu Yang was more concerned about why the members of the Army appeared.

"Did they say anything?"

"They didn’t respond to our radio requests. Either they didn’t have a radio at all, or they didn’t want to talk to us at all."

Lu Yang nodded.

"The former possibility can be ruled out."

"Then there’s only one possibility left." Looking at Captain Lu, Li De cautiously said, "We still have 4 tactical nuclear bombs left, which is more than enough to deal with 2,000 people."

𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

"It’s enough only when 2,000 people stand still and allow us to bomb them..." The Marine Corps adjutant, Yi Hai, shook his head. "They’ve scattered in the forest and built fortifications. So unless we raze the entire forest to the ground, we won’t be able to kill them all. That’s impossible so a conservative estimate means we would need 40 bombs if we wish to wipe them out."

Not to mention that the other party was scattered in the terrain mixed with jungle and urban ruins, and there were obstacles and bunkers that could be used everywhere under that terrain.

They only needed to dig a few foxholes, then they would be able to greatly reduce the threat of explosives. And those cloned madmen who were like beasts basically had no morale problems. When the switch on their necks was turned on, they would go crazy; it was even more convenient than stimulants.

Lu Yang thought about it and said, "Unless we use one warhead that’s large enough."

Before Li De could speak, his secretary Wang Jie shook his head and spoke first, "Our reserves of uranium-235 are not enough. We used it too much last time. Heavy hydrogen can only be extracted by the sea. If we want to make more bombs… With the remaining energy we have now, we can’t even consider this option."

As of the end of the Prosperity Era, the use of nuclear energy on this planet had evolved from the early D-D fusion to the third-generation controllable nuclear fusion.

That was pure helium-3 fusion.

Under this reaction principle, the fusion reaction of two helium-3 atoms would produce two protons and one helium atom, and there would be no neutrons.

It was this technology that the Pioneer used, so naturally it was impossible for them to reserve tritium with a half-life of only twelve years.

Li De rubbed his eyebrows and said with a headache, "So what do we do now? Are we going to watch them build fortifications right under our noses? They are less than 4 kilometers away from our resource collection point! As long as they move a little further east, they will find our construction site!"

"Maybe they’ve already found it, but they’re just busy digging fortifications now." A Marine Corps veteran made a reasonable assumption.

"Let’s do it! There’s no need to be polite with them! The longer we drag on, the harder this bone will be to gnaw." The Marine Corps adjutant put his fist on the table. "The 10 kilometer range is already dangerous, we can’t let them continue building fortifications."

Kindness did not mean weakness.

Moreover, since they were the Army, there was no need to hold back against those organized marauders.

Lu Yang was not an indecisive person. He held his chin and thought for a moment. After weighing the pros and cons, he made a decision in only three seconds.

"We will launch an offensive at 8:00 in the evening!"

The Army had very little high-tech equipment, and their most advanced technology was only individual nuclear warheads launchers and laser rifles, mainly equipped by their elite troops.

It was obvious those who came were far from the elites. It was estimated that there would be some recoilless guns or bazookas, but not to mention self-guided rockets, they may not even have non-guided ones.

The Marine Corps not only had powerful exoframes, but also integrated night vision goggles and thermal imaging functions in the helmet eyepieces. They even had small fixed-wing aircraft supporting them in the sky.

When it got dark, they could hit them like beating blind men!

Lu Yang, who was staring at the big screen, narrowed his eyes slightly.

"Since they refuse to communicate...

"Then let’s use our muzzles to teach them to speak the human language!"

...

In the operation camp.

The players who went to the northern city to pick up garbage were laughing and talking as they came back from the construction site, and they were changing shifts with the unlucky players and newcomers who came from the outpost.

Standing in the center of the camp, looking at the vast sea of people returning from a distance, Quit Smoking shouted excitedly, "Yo! Ample Time! Gale! Night Ten! Where are you?"

After shouting for a while, four little players who seemed to have come out of a coal kiln came and patted him on the shoulder with a smile.

"Not bad, man, you’re finally here."

Quit Smoking couldn’t help but sigh, "Say no more. By the way, who are you?"

Ample Time said with a smile, "I’m Ample Time! The one who doesn’t shave is Old White, the shameless one next to him is Night Ten, and the quiet one is Gale."

Night Ten protested, "I don’t agree! What do you mean that I’m the shameless one? Isn’t Gale the most shameless one? This guy may be quiet, but isn’t the fact that he can remain at our level as an intelligence type already enough to prove that his playing style must be very shameless?"

"Screw you."

Old White patted Quit Smoking’s shoulder and smiled heartily. "It’s really not easy for you! I remember that you applied as early as version 0.1, right? That should be the easiest time to get selected. And then more and more people started to apply for the test, and the chance of getting selected became slimmer and slimmer."

Quit Smoking had a look of sadness. "Sigh, it just makes me want to cry every time I talk about it. I watched the application threshold change from 10 questions to 100 questions, and I drew 7 times in a row, but I missed every single time. I almost lost all hope."

Old White sighed. "It’s okay. You’re not the only one who’s unlucky. Didn’t you see that many old brothers on the forum have started to update their Waiting Diary? The closed alpha invitations for this game are indeed very limited, but it should get better after the closed beta starts."

"Actually, it’s not that bad." Ample Time said with a smile, "Which game company can give players so many devices on credit for free? There are already 400 helmets, right? Everyone couldn’t wait to play this game, mainly because the completion of this game is a bit high, and it took so long to encounter a bug in the closed alpha. I’m honestly surprised."

Night Ten laughed and said, "Light is working overtime right now, so even if you want to flatter him, he won’t be able to hear what you are saying."

Ample Time frowned. "Scram! Am I that kind of person?!"

Old White put his right hand on Quit Smoking’s shoulder. "That’s enough talking. We need to go back to the outpost later. There is another dungeon that has not been cleared. Teng Teng has just upgraded her weaving skills two days ago, and so many people are waiting to change armor, so the demand for Devil Moth cocoons will definitely go up. Since the mission here is finished, we plan to take some time to clear the B1 floor of the Greenhouse Ruins. You can just follow everyone at the moment, and familiarize yourself with the gameplay first. The process of this game is actually quite simple.”

"When you return to the outpost, we will take you to dungeons with us so you can increase your level!"

Hearing that experienced players were going to help him increase his level, Quit Smoking nodded happily. "Okay, boss! I’ll definitely work hard and get the equipment out first, so that I won’t be a hindrance!"

Night Ten sighed with emotion, "This batch of players are actually really lucky. As soon as they got into the game, they caught up with the new expansion pack, and it’s a big expansion pack with a new map! As soon as you get the reward for this expansion pack, you will graduate directly from the novice village. Unlike you guys, we had to build our own kiln to make cement, iron blocks, and fight with arrows and spears."

"Yeah, compared to The Continental Vessel, our Winter Is Coming patch was so backward. We had no equipment, and nothing to eat." Ample Time also sighed with emotion. "You guys are being blessed by God, as soon as you come in, you have everything."

Quit Smoking embarrassedly touched his nose and said with a smile, "Don’t say that, hehe… But then again, after you said that, I suddenly feel that I’m actually very lucky."

Night Ten laughed. "Are you feeling full of gratitude now?"

"Of course!"

The next second, rolling thunder suddenly came from afar.

The five friends from Bull and Horse Club looked towards the north in unison, wondering what happened behind the snow curtain.

However, at this moment, Night Ten’s expression suddenly changed slightly.

The omen of crisis pouring into his heart made him shout out almost instinctively.

"Get down!"